Social media is a means to communicate this story. But instead of originating on the brand’s side of things, it comes from the people. When people tell a story or share an experience, they share their version of it: what they want, what they need, what they like (or didn’t). People circulate things that interest them or things that leave an impression on them. Why do experiences get shared more than 2-dimensional transactions? Look up the word schema and you’ll find out.

In order to be relevant to and successful in social media, brands must strive for relevance in a person’s life. It’s the only way their story is going to be shared with others. I’ve always been a fan of brand utility… we talk about things that we use frequently – they become a part of our daily lives. Facebook anyone?

Each brand who wants to succeed long-term in social media needs to come up with a truly differentiated proposition for their audience. What can your brand contribute to the social sphere? What good can it help facilitate? Think about the people rather than your product, and let me know what you come up with.

In MAS, Catrina McAuliffe repeated a quote from Jane Newman to our class: “It’s not the planner’s job to do the planning, it’s the planner’s job to make sure the planning happens.” As one of the first planners in the U.S., Jane was extremely insightful.

While explaining the history of planning, Catrina went on to say: “Your generation of planners will be the one to re-define how communications are working. You need to grow up great.”

So, how are communications working? To be sure, they’ve become fragmented, multi-task enabled, and cluttered. Planning’s job would be to un-clutter it all, carve out a niche, identify a target, and make sure there’s an emotional connection being made so after all is said and done, at least it’s memorable.

These days, I find myself wading through the thick, deep, fast-moving waters of social media. It really sort of is a black hole of opportunity – for communications, for planning, for marketing, for brands, for culture, etc. Social media is here to stay. The popularity of the medium is high because as members of a community, we seek connections with others. But before “social media” was here, we called these shared but non-communicative communities, brands. A brand was the non-tangible glue that held business together with culture. And the communication or “dialogue” primarily happened in a consumer’s mind as a result of a 2 dimensional message they’d seen transmitted to them (TV, print, outdoor). This was and is traditional media – what we’ve all become familiar with and have consistently seen advertising spending decrease in since the rise of digital (interactive) and social media.

Digital and social are flashy and new. They’re the new guys in town and rather than risk being left behind, a good number of companies are treading the waters, unsure of what they’re looking for but treading them nonetheless. And consumers & culture are right there along side them. So if they’ve already all jumped in the water, where does this leave planning?

We’re most likely standing on shore figuring out how to organize them in the water to make sense of where we should go or what we should do next. Or maybe you’re of the mindset that you might as well jump in and figure it all out once you’re in there. Which one are you? Skeptical to jump into digital or social until you have it all figured out or are you more likely to jump in, learn how to swim and where you’re swimming at the same time?

At my current job, I’m in the latter group. On a daily basis, I’m swimming and navigating. My planner towel is still back on shore, comfortably dry, and while I yearn for the safety and security to be able to see the forest for the trees, I also know there will be a certain level of satisfaction when I finally find my way through the deep waters of social media and come out on the other side, a more diverse, certainly digital, and possibly more adventurous planner.

So to Catrina, I say “Mid-way point, communications are changing, but I’m still swimming alongside of them. Happy to see you in the stands cheering. I’m ready for a beer when I get out.”

Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timed

For campaign measurement to be effective, keep these guidelines in mind.

Plan on.

Alicia Pol checked in at Lakewood station post office.

“Not sure if brunch was invented so you could have eggs for lunch or alcohol with breakfast but either way it’s a big win.” – David Kennedy at Hatties

“Watching TV on the bike rather than the couch.” – Aaron Presley at Equinox Fitness

Gowalla, how I love you. You are the ultimate in social media. Each one of these bits of information brings me something; most often it’s a new place to try and experience, sometimes it’s motivation, and other times it’s a smile. Whatever update it is, it’s never NOT worth my time or attention. When was the last time you found yourself saying that about traditional media?

For the un-initiated, Gowalla is a location-based mobile app that let’s you “Check-in” to places. You friend other people who are also using the service to discover new businesses while at the same time keeping up with the people you like to hang out with: Oh, just saw Scott check in at The Libertine, maybe I’ll go down and join him.

The Wikipedia entry will tell you that Gowalla is a social networking tool – while I have friended a few people that are not in my immediate circle of friends, networking is not what I think it does best. To me, the true value of Gowalla is commercial in an extremely social way; my friends let me know where they’ve been or where they are right now, which in turn, inspires me to go there too, whether today or later this week, it (your business) is on my radar.

You could say the same thing about Foursquare – the other location-based, check-in, get a reward app in the market right now. I see Foursquare vs. Gowalla as the iPhone’s version of Brittney vs. Christina. You like one or the other but rarely both. Foursquare offers me the same features as Gowalla, but then there’s blatant marketing involved – 50% off wine next door at The Wine Cellars (if I checked in at a place in the same neighborhood). By using Gowalla, my friends bring me newsworthy information with a simple check-in, comment, or even a photo, not businesses clamoring for my business. To me, Gowalla represents pure social media.

If you have Gowalla or Foursquare, which one do you like the best?

If you’re in Dallas and interested in trying Gowalla, you can friend me here. If you’re outside Dallas and you read this post and would like to be friends, I have to be honest with you, friending and receiving location-based updates from people outside my city really isn’t that helpful. Try to find people you like in the city you live in – your experience with Gowalla and location-based tech will be much more rewarding.

If you want to know more about the location-based services trend, read this short article from SXSW 2010.

With that, Happy Independence Day and be sure to check-in at your fireworks’ show tonight. I’m still looking for a place to go.

Infographic by PPC Blog

Part of my journey to answering this question included reading Nielsen’s Advertising Effectiveness report: Understanding the Value of a Social Media Impression. In it they discuss how paid media should complement earned media – that allusive term that used to be owned solely by PR. But that was then, and this is now.

“Marketers are moving from a broadcast-based marketing relationship with consumers to a relationship that more explicitly considers how traditional paid media drives “earned media” – where consumers directly engage with the marketing messages and pass them along to their friends.”

People now (let’s not call them consumers till they’re actually consuming) almost expect to be able to interact with companies and brands online. They want their voices heard and their problems addressed. So what’s the value of having people engage with your message rather than just look at it or be impressionized? (that’s a made up word, but you know what I mean)

Nielsen says that on Facebook, there are three kinds of impressions: standard paid impressions, paid impressions that contain social information, and earned impressions that happen as a result of a Facebook user engaging with an ad. (for the un-initiated, this last one is the Holy Grail of social media). As we all know, advertising seeks to influence: we want it to reach and impact a target audience. Nielsen says that earned impressions have the highest level of impact on behavior but that reach is difficult to achieve with earned media along.

“The key to success for marketers is creating a mix of social impressions that incorporate both paid and earned media. The consumer is now invited to broadcast, and hopefully endorse, the brand to their online friends. As a result, brands are turning to the tools and advertising opportunities provided by social media outlets.”

Let’s focus on the word “tools” for a minute. Have you heard of branded utility? Essentially, you create something people can use. If it’s on a regular basis, that’s even better. Branded utility gives people an experience, just like “social” media does. As marketers we should be including tools, like branded utility and social media, in the marketing mix. Why? Because people are more likely to talk about an experience than they are a stalemate print ad or billboard.

What’s the #1 tool/branded utility in the world right now? Facebook. Mark and his crew have done a great job at providing a wide range of tools for brands and fans to use:

• applications
• discussion boards
• ratings & review tabs
• status updates that can be liked, commented on, and shared
• social ads
• Facebook Connect
• etc.

And marketers love it! By using these tools, alongside people on a daily/weekly basis, brands can raise awareness, increase purchase intent, and enhance recall.

So there we have it. The true value of social media is producing a change in behavior thus having an impact, raising awareness, increasing purchase intent, and therefore, enhancing recall ALL while reaching your target audience and their corresponding networks of friends, acquaintances, and likeminded individuals.

Very effective stuff this social media.

When we think about how important and personal most healthcare issues are for people, the ability to develop engaging and honest experiences that deliver against someone’s needs becomes the differentiator between simply having a presence in social and really enabling a social experience with your brand.

Read this in MediaPost’s 6 Steps To Becoming A Social Brand this morning. And I have to say, I don’t think this only applies to healthcare brands.

Developing ENGAGING and HONEST experiences is what being in social media is all about. Either you’re just “in” social media or you’re enabling social experiences.

Enable, enable, enable. More to come soon…

Very weird to see these “celebrities” as the top Twitter Users… anyone else feel the same?

“Talked-about advertising,” the brilliant article by Steve Henry, is what made me think this. I don’t remember where I originally  found this article; I think it was from Gareth Kay via Facebook. I saw the link and boom, Click! Awesome.

Let me give you a taste:

• – The most irritating fact of all is that 95% of [advertising] is a massive waste of money
• – There is no point in advertising that is not talked about.
• – Advertising where art meets business, is a giant wasteland of missed opportunities
• – Why doesn’t the creativity get used?
• – Why is the advertising world so f*cking frightened?
• – I think the answer lies in learning how to take risks.
• – When you do something that enters popular culture, you take certain risks.
• – Break the rules.

I think “the rules” should be in quotes. The biggest limitations are often ones we put on ourselves, fictitious “rules.” – Bleh. Out with them. Confidently do something you believe in. Change it for the better.

To market is to risk. Go on, and take planning along for the ride, it will give you direction.

So the post begins: Just saw “Exit Through The Gift Shop” at the Angelika Film Center (it’s my favorite, after #1 at the Inwood). I didn’t know exactly what I was in for…had just gotten the plug from Jill & Jeff over breakfast at Café Brazil on Cedar Springs. – I feel like I’m typing my update into Gowalla or something…do you really care where I was or what I was doing? I guess it helps set the context and pays tribute to the people who are responsible for the idea

Now: I feel compelled to blog about street art, because 1) it’s awesome, 2) it’s beautiful, and 3) I think small businesses need to support this shit. The thing is, it’s not shit. It doesn’t need to be painted over. It contributes to culture. Just let that soak in for a minute. A beautiful painting on a wall, while you didn’t “pay for” it, should be welcomed because (let’s be honest) it brightens your flat, lifeless, grey wall. It makes people stop – at your business – and ponder…life, your business, art, themselves, and many other things. You want to stop people at your business. don’t you? You want to be a business that supports beautiful things that enrich the community around you. right?

A simple way to accomplish these two things while also supporting something completely unique that will be added to society is to find an artist to sponsor. Put paintings on your walls! Be unique! Turn your business into a mini-gallery, complete with works of art that capture and hold people’s attention. Or even better, that strike up a conversation! No better way to be social than to have something spark a thought or reaction.

Shepard Fairey was one of the street artists celebrated by this film. I was first exposed to him when I lived in Eugene, Oregon. His OBEY faces were all over the University of Oregon, no bigger than 3″ x 3″ each of them. The movie accurately describes Fairey’s work as “an experiment in the power of repetition….it gains real power from perceived power.” I worked for the Coolest Shop at the time. Garth put out a few issues of a magazine; I’m pretty sure one of them featured a Shepard Fairey work of art on the cover. And now, you can see Fairey’s infamous Barack Obama poster everywhere – as a point of controversy. Should Fairey be sued for copyright infringement? He made something so incredibly social that all parties involved experienced success. Let me say that again: all parties involved experienced success.

Art does amazing things. Don’t paint over it.